Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am glad of the opportunity to speak in recognition of the importance of Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and I thank the member for Kingston for bringing this motion. Lung cancer is a terrible disease. It is the main cause of cancer death in Australia, and it is a form of cancer with a comparatively poor survival rate. Only 13 in 100 survive five years beyond the initial diagnosis. Thankfully, over the last 25 years the application of public health policy has seen a significant reduction in the incidence of lung cancer. There is no doubt that one of the most significant public health achievements in this country over the last quarter of a century has been tobacco control, which has made a clear difference when it comes to rates of lung cancer.

Cancer Australia's 2011 report to the nation notes that 90 per cent of lung cancer in males and 65 per cent of lung cancer in females is estimated to be as a result of smoking. Of course there are significant other factors involved in causing lung cancer but tobacco is far and away the worst. That is why tobacco control has been so important and effective—because, by dramatically reducing the rate of smoking, we greatly lessen the impact of carcinogens in tobacco on smokers and on those exposed to passive smoking, and the incidence of lung cancer has decreased accordingly.

This has not been easy and it is important to recognise that the hard work of shifting Australia from being a country with a relatively high level of smoking and of smoking related disease and death to the situation today required policy and political courage. Between 1991 and 2010 the proportion of daily smokers aged 14 years and over decreased by almost 40 per cent and smoking rates in Australia are now among the lowest in the world, just as life expectancy in Australia is now among the highest in the world. There is no question that the Labor Party has led this effort or that the Labor government took that work further with our world-leading introduction of plain packaging accompanied by a $27.8 million advertising campaign. I was very pleased to make a contribution to the debate in support of Labor's Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Amendment Bill during the life of the previous parliament. It was legislation that made key improvements to the way in which tobacco promotion through the internet and new technologies was controlled.

There are those who continue to claim that this long hard battle was and is unnecessary—indeed, that it was an improper cause pursued by those with a kind of nanny-state mentality. As I said before, that view stands awkwardly alongside the clear statement of the National Tobacco Strategy 2004-09 which said:

Tobacco is a unique consumer item. Tobacco products cause premature death and disability when used as intended by the manufacturer; and they are addictive. No company trying to introduce cigarettes into Australia today would succeed in getting them onto the market.

I note that the UK government is about to follow in our plain-packaging footsteps and yet a member of the government has expressed the view that smoking and the sale of tobacco should really be left as a matter of individual freedom and individual responsibility. To hold that kind of view you would have to ignore altogether the vast inequitable disparity that exists, on the one hand between a multibillion-dollar corporation with all the advertising resources and techniques at its disposal in its effort to push an addictive product on young people, and on the other hand a teenage boy or girl who, if they succumb to that manipulation, will likely have their life significantly shortened.

The history of tobacco is a reminder that corporate interests are quite capable of putting profits before people's health, and not just inadvertently. It is a reminder that one of the critical functions of government is to act as a balance against the potential for large companies and organisations to put their interests improperly ahead of the interests of individuals and society as a whole. I am glad that the Prime Minister has recently acknowledged that it is wrong to accept donations from tobacco companies, just as Labor did a decade earlier, and it is a welcome development that this approach is now bipartisan. We must have a committed national effort to reducing smoking rates further and to improving the way we diagnose and treat lung cancer.

There are thousands of Australians living with lung cancer, and our thoughts are with all those fighting against this painful, frightening life-threatening illness, and with their families. Lung Cancer Awareness Month is an opportunity to recognise the toll that this disease takes on individuals, families and communities and an opportunity to acknowledge the expertise, research, health care and emotional support provided by health professionals working to combat lung cancer and assist those suffering from it. More than anything, it is an opportunity to remember that lung cancer continues to be a significant cause of death and continues to be a form of cancer that has a comparatively poor survival rate, and for that reason it is a significant issue of public policy. I would like to thank and pay tribute to Lung Foundation Australia for its important work in this area.

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